Red Bull find Lando Norris dominance “alarming” and “scary”

Red Bull admit the dominant manner of Lando Norris’s victory at the Dutch Grand Prix is a worry for their hopes of winning both F1 world championships.

Norris recovered from a poor start to repass Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, before romping home to claim an emphatic second win of the season by a margin of nearly 23 seconds in his upgraded McLaren. 

The result has seen Norris cut Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship down to 70 points, while McLaren have closed to within 30 points of Red Bull in the constructors’ standings with nine races to go.

Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko told Autosport after the race that Norris’s dominance at Zandvoort was “alarming” and made it clear he feels McLaren are a threat for both world titles this year.

Verstappen is now winless in five races, with his last victory coming at the Spanish Grand Prix in June.

"This weekend was just a bad weekend in general. So we need to understand that,” the Dutchman said.

"But the last few races already, they haven't really been fantastic. So that, I think in a sense, was already a bit alarming.

"But we know that we don't need to panic. We are just trying to improve the situation. And that's what we are working on. But F1 is very complicated.”

Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who finished sixth, admitted he is also concerned by McLaren’s immense pace, describing it as “scary”.

“I think in terms of weekend progression it has been a solid one,” Perez told the official F1 channel. “But I’m just very disappointed with the pace we had today in the race.

“It’s something we were not expecting to have. I thought we were going to be a lot closer to the McLaren. Ferrari was a massive surprise and obviously McLaren. So plenty of stuff to understand.

“I think it has been a positive weekend for the team because we ran different specs between Max and myself so a lot of data gathering for this weekend and hopefully very soon we can put everything together in the right package.

“Monza will be a very different track again. But it was scary to see what McLaren can do today.”